United Bank earned the 2012 Reader Rave award in the category of Best Local Bank.

“It’s an honor because there are a ton of banks out there and a ton of options,” said Dena M. Hall, United Bank’s senior vice president of marketing and community relations. “It’s humbling.”

With corporate headquarters and an operations center at 95 Elm St. in West Springfield, United Bank offers a full range of personal and business banking products, commercial lending and wealth management. Online banking is available along with 24/7 ATMs and TeleBank, an automated account information line.

There are 22 bank branches located in Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester counties.

Through The United Wealth Management Group, the bank offers access to a full range of investment and insurance products and services, as well as financial, estate and retirement planning.

Popular is the bank’s free checking; checks are free, and there is no minimum balance required or monthly fees. “I think this is one of the things that makes us popular,” Hall said. “No fees on our checking account; that’s what’s important now.”

An increasing number of new checking accounts indicates people have “had it” with big bank’s fees, she added. “Ours is truly free, and that makes a big difference for people.”

Also important is customer service. Personal bankers are responsible for their own group of customers, and “they love their customers, and their customers love them,” Hall said.

The fact that United Bank is a local bank, “and decisions are made here” not in a far-away corporate office, is appealing to customers, too, Hall added.

And, United Bank, formerly United Cooperative Bank, gives back to the community.

Through its charitable foundation the bank grants about $200,000 annually to nonprofit organizations in Springfield; it has granted nearly $1.7 million in the last six years.

United Bank also grants between $150,000 and $200,000 annually for sponsorships and community donations.

In January it was announced that employee and United Bank Foundation contributions combined totaled $97,643 in support of the United Ways of Pioneer Valley, Hampshire Community and Central Massachusetts.

The bank has been doing business in the greater Springfield area since 1882. It has more than $1.6 billion in assets; it went public in 2005. Those assets continue to grow as United Bank announced in May plans to acquire Enfield-based New England Bank; once complete, the acquisition will make United a $2.4 billion bank with 39 branch locations in seven counties of Massachusetts and Connecticut.